Mayim Bialik Denies She Is Anti-Vaccine Despite Earlier Statements

Mayim Bialik, the sometimes-controversial parenting blogger and actor on The Big Bang Theory, took to Facebook Tuesday to address a hot-button topic: vaccination. Bialik, a Ph.D. in neuroscience in addition to her work in entertainment, denied that she is against vaccines.

“I would like to dispel the rumors about my stance on vaccines. I am not anti-vaccine. My children are vaccinated. There has been so much hysteria and anger about this issue and I hope this clears things up as far as my part.”

In a subsequent post the following day, Bialik chided the responses she received from people who reacted negatively to her statement.

“Honestly, people. Do your research. Do what’s right for you. Let me live my life and you live yours. No one gets to know the timeline of my kids’ medical appointments because they are not celebrities and they are not your property. Put me on the altar if you have nothing better to do today, but just be happy with your decisions and leave my kids alone. My job is not in jeopardy. Everything is fine, except in the clearly supportive and loving world of social media and gossip. Have a fantastic day everyone.”

Bialik, who caused a stir by rejecting the premise of the popular Disney film Frozen and recently criticized a feel-good viral ad for baby formula, has in the past made more complicated statements about vaccines. The Times of Israel gathered some of these statements. The first was Bialik’ 2009 statement to People.

“We are a non-vaccinating family, but I make no claims about people’s individual decisions. We based ours on research and discussions with our pediatrician, and we’ve been happy with that decision, but obviously there’s a lot of controversy about it.”

The Times admitted that 2009 is six years ago, and Bialik’s family circumstances or personal beliefs might have changed. The article then quotes Bialik from her Kveller blog in 2012. In that post, Bialik first states she did not want to discuss vaccines, but goes on to say that parents should make the decision for themselves. She also names two books on the issue that she says helped her family decide.

“Children today get about four times as many vaccines as the average 35-year-old did when we were kids. Besides visiting the CDC website and finding out who gets diseases the medical establishment vaccinates for (and why and where and when), here are the books we used to research each vaccine and discuss each with several doctors before deciding what was right for our family.”

As if to reinforce the point that she is not against vaccines, Bialik tweeted out two additional posts in addition to those that linked back to her Facebook page.

dispelling rumors abt my stance on vaccines. i’m not anti. my kids are vaccinated. so much anger and hysteria. i hope this clears things up.